sneaking around
by illrain666
Summary: kitty has some explaining to do. set after 'potential'.


(What the hell was I thinking?)

Sneaking Around

Slowly, Kitty poked her head through the bedroom door. She gave a little sigh of relief when she saw that the lumps on each of the two beds hadn't moved since she had tiptoed out more than two hours ago. Very silently, she slipped through the door and made her way to her bed. She carefully lifted the covers and picked up the pillows she had arranged to resemble a sleeping form. As she got ready to take their place, the room was suddenly filled with light.

Her roommate, Jubilee, was glaring at her, her hand still on the light switch. Kitty saw too late that the other girl also had the talent of making a very convincing sleeping human with some pillows and a blanket.

"Hi, Jubes," she said weakly. "Sorry to wake you."

"Katherine Kitty Pryde, you have some explaining to do!" Jubilee said in an ominous tone.

Kitty was very nervous by now, and feeling strangely guilty as well. She started to babble.

"Look, I'm really sorry if I've disturbed you by creeping in like this. I was thirsty, really thirsty, and I wanted some ice cream. So I went downstairs to the kitchen, had some ice cream, and drank water, too, of course, then I kinda got to watching this horror movie with that weird kid who doesn't sleep, you know, and then I completely lost track of time, and I kept eating the ice cream – "

"Stop!" Jubilee help up her hand to get Kitty's full attention. "I want details!" she demanded.

"Details?" Kitty was confused. "About the ice cream – movie?"

"No, Miss Horrible Liar!" her friend retorted. "The guy. Who is he?"

Again, Kitty felt that odd twist of guilt in her chest. "What guy?"

"The guy you've been sneaking around to meet these past few nights. Come on, Kitty. Spill!" Jubilee had lost the glare. She was now looking at her roommate with unabashed and excited curiosity. "Tell me! Who is he?"

"There's no guy!" Even to herself, she didn't sound very convincing, Kitty thought.

"Oh, please! This is a coeducational boarding school. There's only one reason for a girl to be sneaking around at night in a place like this. Speaking from experience here!" Jubilee moved to grab Kitty and sat them both down on the floor. "Girl, it is my basic human right as your roommate to know all the facts about this guy who's got you doing crazy stuff like breaking curfew. Now please, please tell me everything or I swear I will never stop bugging you about this!"

"There is no guy, Jubes, I swear!"

"Okay! Let me guess who it is." Jubilee thought for a moment, then she gave a little squeal. "Ohmygosh, is it Angel Boy?"

"What!" Kitty was truly flabbergasted. "No!"

"Damn! But you gotta admit he's pretty hot. I saw him without his shirt off the other day when he was stretching his wings, and complete and total hotness! Can you just imagine him kissing you with those wings wrapped around the two of you and it's like you're in your own little world of white feathers?" Jubilee looked like she was about to faint with the bliss the fantasy stirred in her, but she wasn't about to get sidetracked that easily. "So if it isn't Angel Boy, is it the Vampire?"

"Who?"

"You know, that new guy with the red eyes and the yummy accent! Rem somebody. Have you noticed that the guy has the sexiest hands ever? The way he holds those stupid cards of his, it's like he's touching you." Jubilee had a faraway look on her face as she imagined those hands touching – stuff.

Kitty cleared her throat in embarrassment. "I have never noticed his hands, Jubes," she said. "Though he kinda does look like a vampire with those eyes of his."

"Not the Vampire, either. Hmm." Jubilee frowned as she thought of all the other guys Kitty could possibly be sneaking around to meet. Then it was like lightning suddenly struck her. "I know who it is! It's Peter!"

"Peter!" Kitty choked. "No! Absolutely not!"

"It's Peter!" Jubilee was completely convinced of this. "You are having a thing with the Siberian Hunky!"

"Where do you get these words?" Kitty was astounded. "I am not having a thing with Peter!"

"Sure. Right." Jubilee looked smug. "Well, goodnight, Kitty. I've finally figured out your secret." She went back to her bed. "Turn off the light, will you?"

Shaking her head at the sheer audacity of the girl, Kitty turned off the light and went to sleep.

The next morning during all the classes they shared together, which, by the sadistic fickleness of the universe also had Peter in them, Kitty suffered Jubilee's teasing remarks and self-satisfied smiles with resigned irritation. By the lunch hour, thanks to Jubilee's very obvious innuendoes, half of the school was buzzing about the supposed hot romance between Kitty Pryde and Peter Rasputin.

Kitty was completely mortified at the thought of being the subject of such juicy gossip. She kept her gaze on her food and positioned a very large book to cover her face as she ate lunch. She didn't want to meet anyone's eyes inadvertently.

"Hey, John!" Jubilee called out, her voice setting Kitty's teeth on edge. "Over here! Sit with us!"

She froze. Slowly, she turned her head and saw John Allerdyce making his way towards their table. His face was impassive as he slid onto the seat beside hers. Their eyes met for a moment. "Hi," he said.

"Hi," she responded, then looked down at her food again.

"Hi!" Jubilee chirped. "Oh, John, don't sit there! Come sit beside me. You wouldn't wanna make Kitty's boyfriend jealous."

"What?" she exclaimed at the same time that John said, "Boyfriend?"

"Peter," the other girl informed him quite happily about the news. "Kitty's been seeing Peter."

John gave Kitty a searching look. "Since when?" he asked.

"She's been meeting him these past few nights in secret," Jubilee told him confidingly then winked at her utterly embarrassed roommate.

"It's not true," she denied through gritted teeth.

A more sensitive person would have picked up on the tension in her voice. Jubilee, however, could be quite dense at times.

"They make a cute couple, don't you think?" she was saying to John.

"No. Not really," he said coolly.

Kitty looked at him. Jubilee looked, too.

"Come on. How can you say that? I think they're adorable together."

"They're not," he shook his head. "He's too tall for her."

"Well, whatever!" Jubilee huffed. "But they are seeing each other."

"No," he told her. "They're not seeing each other."

"And how do you know that?" Jubilee demanded.

"Because," he answered simply, "_we're_ seeing each other."

Forty minutes later, Kitty and John were in the med lab. Kitty was standing up holding an ice compress against John's hideous black eye as he sat on the examining table.

"Why would you make people think that we're seeing each other?" she asked him hesitantly.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he replied, his voice even.

"Sure," she nodded. "It was a brilliant idea. So brilliant that it made Bobby and Peter beat you up."

"Yeah. Those two have a funny way of commending brilliant ideas. Since they're your friends, you should talk to them about that."

Kitty scowled at him in annoyance. "John, you are so weird!"

"Yeah," he agreed. There was a flicker of something odd in his eyes that Kitty couldn't quite define. Whatever it was, it seemed to change the mood between them. She bit her lower lip in sudden nervousness.

The sound of a throat being cleared startled her out of the strange little moment they had been having. She was even more startled when she realized that, somehow, she was standing in between his legs and his hands were resting lightly against her back. She moved several feet away from him hurriedly, a blush staining her cheeks as she turned to face Mr. Logan.

The damnable man raised an eyebrow and smirked at them. "Miss Munroe wants to see the two of you in her office," he told them.

Obediently, Kitty followed him, John trailing behind. They were ushered into Miss Munroe's office where she was waiting for them with a very strict expression.

"So," she said, her tone very forbidding, "what's this I hear about the two of you sneaking around?"

the end


End file.
